Purbeck Ball Clay

Purbeck Ball Clay is a clay deposits, found on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset in the south of England. The highest concentration of Purbeck Ball Clay is located in the north of the Purbeck Hills around the small town north at Furzebrook, between Corfe Castle and Wareham.

What is Ball Clay?

Tone refers to a naturally occurring mineral composed of fine-grained minerals and can hold different amounts of water. With appropriate water contents tone is plastic, drying or burning cures sound. Ball Clays are sedimentary in origin. Ball Clay is due to the combination of geological factors that are necessary for the formation and preservation, an extremely rare mineral.

Ball Clay is found only in very few places around the world. Is sponsored ball clay in parts of the East of the United States as well as in two workings in Devon ( Bovey Basin in the south, Petrockstowe Basin in the north) and in the Wareham Basin on the Isle of Purbeck.

Purbeck Ball Clay is a fine-grained, highly plastic sedimentary clay that can be burned to very light or almost white in color.

The name Ball Clay goes back to the early methods of mining. Special hand tools were used to cut the clay into large cubes of approximately 25 to 30 centimeters. As the corners were repelled by handling and storage often, these cubes were rounded up, and cast a " ball " -like shape. Ball Clay is sometimes referred to as plastic clay.

Formation

Before about 45 million years ago the climate was tropical. The former Old River " Solent " kaolinite formed (formed from decayed granite ) from the bedrock on Dartmoor. In the creek runs, kaolinites have mixed with other clay minerals, sand, gravel and vegetation. The minerals were deposited in the deep basin.

Ball clays generally contain three dominant minerals: 20 to 80 % kaolinite, 10 to 25% mica, and 6-65 % silica. In addition, it contains other minerals and carbonaceous chondrite. The differences in the mineral composition as well as the various compositions of the clay particles, resulting in different characteristics in the various layers deposited.

Extraction

Before 1800

It is generally accepted that Purbeck Ball Clay was used since Roman times, perhaps even since the early Bronze Age. There is evidence that there was a Roman pottery in the north in the third century.

It was to make the introduction of tobacco to England in the 16th century by Sir Walter Raleigh, with which the need has arisen for a suitable sound track to smoking pipes. This has led to the beginning of the modern Purbeck Ball Clay - trade. Large-scale commercial extraction began in the mid-18th century. The most important work was in the area south of Wareham, executed in Wareham Basin.

Originally the Purbeck Ball Clay was transported by draft horses to the investors and loading places on the River Frome or on the south side of Poole Harbour.

In 1771 Josiah Wedgwood signed a contract with Thomas Hyde in Arne for the supply of 1,400 tons Purbeck Ball Clay in order to make it thin ceramic. Wedgwood had earlier this tried in vain in other suppliers of sound, including asking his friend, Joseph Banks, to get a certain tone of Botany Bay Australia. But Wedgwood came to the conclusion that the " blue clay Bagshot ," found at Wareham, was the best for this purpose. Wedgwood used the " Blue Purbeck Ball Clay " for his world-famous Queen 's Ware which made ​​him a very rich man.

From the 1796 census shows that 55 were employed by 96 involved in the local industry men of Corfe Castle with Tonschneiden.

The whole area around Arne unfolded through the extraction and export of Purbeck Ball Clay. A large part was transported over the river Frome, but part by rail on narrow gauge railways to Poole Harbour. In 1813 the transport on Purbeck Ball Clay was freed from all Poolehafen taxes.

The railroad

Wedgwood's contract later led to the construction of the first railway in Dorset in 1806. This was the Middlebere Plateway. A Plateway is an early kind of railway or tram or train horses, a program running on cast iron rails and drawn by horses as draft animals transport.

This Plateway joined the Merchant Benjamin Fayle Tonwerk of London at Corfe Castle to a wharf on Middlebere Creek in Poole Harbour. Other similar trams followed, including the Furzebrook Railway ( 1830), the Newton tram ( 1860 ), and the tram Fayle (1907).

The brothers William Joseph Pike and John William Pike were Purbeck Ball Clay dealer. They built about 1840 a ​​railway line from Ridge to Furzebrook. Later they extended it by Creech. In 1866 they brought the first steam locomotive to the Isle of Purbeck.

The ball clay merchant, in collaboration with John Mowlem, suggested in 1874 a Swanage Railway system before. However, this was not able to be realized because then began the economic recession. In contrast, when the Swanage Railway was finally built in 1885, special sidings for the transport of the Ball Clay in Furzebrook, and sidings were built in Swanage for the Purbeck stone. After construction of the London and South Western Railway from Wareham to Swanage in 1885, the Purbeck Ball Clay was shipped by rail. Ball Clay was the most valuable cargo for the Swanage Railway during the first half of the 20th century.

Purbeck Ball Clay is still gained more occurrences on the Isle of Purbeck and clay is processed in Furzebrook. The sound is now transported by truck or standard gauge trains. Currently clay Britain's second most important mineral export after oil exports.

Forms of use

Purbeck Ball Clay is used in the manufacture of everyday objects:

• Wall and floor tiles, sinks, toilet bowls, plates, cups and saucers, linoleum, tile, acoustic ceiling panels, insulation for electrical cables, pale-colored brick and drain pipes.
• Wipers, spark plugs and engine block seals.
• Hoses and fertilizers.